Uncooled amorphous silicon TEC-less 1⁄4 VGA IRFPA with 25 μm pixel-pitch for high volume applications

The high level of accumulated expertise by ULIS and CEA/LETI on uncooled microbolometers made from an amorphous silicon layer enables ULIS to develop 384 x 288 (1⁄4 VGA) IRFPA format with 25 μm pixel-pitch designed for low end application. This detector has kept all the innovations developed on the full TV format ROIC (detector configuration by serial link, low power consumption or wide electrical dynamic range ...). The specific appeal of this unit lies in the miniaturization of the TEC-less (Thermo-Electric Cooler) package and its extremely light weight. The reduction of the pixel-pitch and the innovative package turn this array into a low cost product well adapted for mass production. We will present first the simple TEC-less operating mode which has been developed. The electro-optical characterization versus environmental temperature will be presented.